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Writing programs: Useful or Tedious?

Do you use any kind of writing software?

  • Yeah, they're helpful.

    Votes: 12 50.0%
  • No, they're useless.

    Votes: 5 20.8%
  • I might check some out, not sure yet.

    Votes: 7 29.2%

  • Total voters
    24

Gypsyharper

New Member
I love Scrivener. It's two most useful features as far as I'm concerned are its ability to put everything in one place (I always seem to collect a ton of documents related to whatever I'm working on, in addition to my actual manuscript) and the compile feature. It has lots of other bells and whistles, too (some have been mentioned above) so how you use it really just depends on your preferred workflow.
 

J. S. Elliot

Inkling
Regarding Scrivener. I just downloaded the trial tonight, but I recall it being mentioned somewhere that the product key is non-transferable. Does this mean that, if I buy the full version, I'll have to pay another $40 (or more) when the time comes to replace my laptop?
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
You can install it on multiple machines of your own, including your new laptop, unless you change operating systems. The product key for the Windows version won't work on the Mac and vice versa.
 

J. S. Elliot

Inkling
Ah, okay. I misunderstood it, then. I was under the impression that you could only use the product key on one machine before it was void.
 
Writing software is only valuable if it helps you organize what you are doing and write more. I have been working with LSB which is interesting, but more as an organizer than anything else. Tools are great if they help, but I find many of the programs waste more time than help. I looked at Dramatica, and it is a beast of an application that appears to be more work than help...I could be wrong, but I failed to see any value in it.

Writing involves writing, be it Word, or any other word processor..or even text editor, that is where the storytelling takes place. The tools are just to help make sense of what goes on in the story.
 

Game

Dreamer
I loved your opinions and am thinking about buying Scrivener, is there anybody here that had good experience with it? :)
 
Liquid story binder, it is an interesting program, and it had one feature I found worth paying them for...timeline. It isn't really that impressive as a feature by itself, but it does do a good job. I think it has some value personally, but it won't really make your story any better. It could be helpful in organizing it, but well, it might just distract you as well.
 

Game

Dreamer
I have yWriter5, have looked at Scrivener which looks really nice but I am cheap so haven't bought it.

What is LSB?
yWriter5 is nice, but I realize now a simple notebook is much better.
Scrivener is plain clumsy, too many features and the basic ones aren't that helpful.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
yWriter5 is nice, but I realize now a simple notebook is much better.
Scrivener is plain clumsy, too many features and the basic ones aren't that helpful.

I'd reverse that. I think they're both good, for what they are doing, but I've found Scrivener to be the more useful and intuitive of the few. LSB is good. It can take a while to learn all the features.
 
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